#age-gating — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #age-gating, aggregated by home.social.
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Turns out social media platforms new #agegating techniques fail to keep Aussie kids out. Fancy that.
Now the government will "expand the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to demand information and documents from platforms".
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Turns out social media platforms new #agegating techniques fail to keep Aussie kids out. Fancy that.
Now the government will "expand the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to demand information and documents from platforms".
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Turns out social media platforms new #agegating techniques fail to keep Aussie kids out. Fancy that.
Now the government will "expand the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to demand information and documents from platforms".
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Turns out social media platforms new #agegating techniques fail to keep Aussie kids out. Fancy that.
Now the government will "expand the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to demand information and documents from platforms".
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Turns out social media platforms new #agegating techniques fail to keep Aussie kids out. Fancy that.
Now the government will "expand the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to demand information and documents from platforms".
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The problem with #DigitalID and #AgeGating is the organisations involved.
The politicians who are responsible for bringing in the regulations are merely trying to gain favour from the voting population and know little about what they are doing. They appear to see the limit of their responsibility is to hand the work to a company for a reasonable cost without specifying or checking any level of competancy or professionalism. "Buck passing" would appear to be the correct phrase.
The companies winning the contract have only one thing on their mind, making profit for themselves or their shareholders. The majority of these systems must be very, very round because all the corners appear to have been cut!
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CW: Repost: New social media restrictions
Despite being parody, diamond geezer's new age-gating - which e.g. asks for personal information but, obviously, doesn't actually block access to the site - somehow perfectly straddles the line between "invasive" and "ineffective"... in exactly the same way that I expect the UK's legal implementation will manage in a year or two.
Read more: https://danq.me/2026/06/15/new-social-media-restrictions/ -
How and Why to Fight Back Against #SocialMedia Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of #censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures, with states like #Massachusetts , #Idaho , #Minnesota , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , #Illinois , and EFF’s home state of #California leading the charge.
Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating laws insisted their efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young people’s access to adult content.
#agegating #ageverification
#privacyhttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/how-and-why-fight-back-against-social-media-bans
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How and Why to Fight Back Against #SocialMedia Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of #censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures, with states like #Massachusetts , #Idaho , #Minnesota , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , #Illinois , and EFF’s home state of #California leading the charge.
Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating laws insisted their efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young people’s access to adult content.
#agegating #ageverification
#privacyhttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/how-and-why-fight-back-against-social-media-bans
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How and Why to Fight Back Against #SocialMedia Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of #censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures, with states like #Massachusetts , #Idaho , #Minnesota , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , #Illinois , and EFF’s home state of #California leading the charge.
Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating laws insisted their efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young people’s access to adult content.
#agegating #ageverification
#privacyhttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/how-and-why-fight-back-against-social-media-bans
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How and Why to Fight Back Against #SocialMedia Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of #censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures, with states like #Massachusetts , #Idaho , #Minnesota , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , #Illinois , and EFF’s home state of #California leading the charge.
Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating laws insisted their efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young people’s access to adult content.
#agegating #ageverification
#privacyhttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/how-and-why-fight-back-against-social-media-bans
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How and Why to Fight Back Against #SocialMedia Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of #censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures, with states like #Massachusetts , #Idaho , #Minnesota , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , #Illinois , and EFF’s home state of #California leading the charge.
Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating laws insisted their efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young people’s access to adult content.
#agegating #ageverification
#privacyhttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/how-and-why-fight-back-against-social-media-bans
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CW: anti-nudity tech, pie in the sky
"Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data. The device should simply block harmful content across all apps and services. Over-18s will still be able to view adult content by providing proof of age."
"simply block harmful content" - This is a silly thing to say, because "harmful" has much more nuance than "naked skin in the pic or certain words in the text".
"British safety tech firm SafeToNet has shown this change is already achievable, with software that blocks nude content and prevents images being taken if the camera detects a child."
If the _camera_ detects a child, is it now! Even a human can't reliably tell the difference between someone a little bit "under age" and someone a little bit "over age".
I suppose they'll just err on the side of "if in doubt, assume everyone is a child", which is where it was headed anyway.
"We have proven that with HarmBlock, on-device, tamperproof, embedded safeguards can prevent children from seeing, filming and broadcasting explicit content. It works in real-time including livestream and crucially also protects the privacy rights of the child as no data enters or leaves the application."
Maybe. But it _will_ invade the privacy rights of _adults_.
Also, I wonder how this stuff deals with medical or educational reasons for looking at skin - like breast cancer info sites or safer sex info sites. Unconvinced it has the capacity to tell the difference.
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CW: anti-nudity tech, pie in the sky
"Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data. The device should simply block harmful content across all apps and services. Over-18s will still be able to view adult content by providing proof of age."
"simply block harmful content" - This is a silly thing to say, because "harmful" has much more nuance than "naked skin in the pic or certain words in the text".
"British safety tech firm SafeToNet has shown this change is already achievable, with software that blocks nude content and prevents images being taken if the camera detects a child."
If the _camera_ detects a child, is it now! Even a human can't reliably tell the difference between someone a little bit "under age" and someone a little bit "over age".
I suppose they'll just err on the side of "if in doubt, assume everyone is a child", which is where it was headed anyway.
"We have proven that with HarmBlock, on-device, tamperproof, embedded safeguards can prevent children from seeing, filming and broadcasting explicit content. It works in real-time including livestream and crucially also protects the privacy rights of the child as no data enters or leaves the application."
Maybe. But it _will_ invade the privacy rights of _adults_.
Also, I wonder how this stuff deals with medical or educational reasons for looking at skin - like breast cancer info sites or safer sex info sites. Unconvinced it has the capacity to tell the difference.
-
CW: anti-nudity tech, pie in the sky
"Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data. The device should simply block harmful content across all apps and services. Over-18s will still be able to view adult content by providing proof of age."
"simply block harmful content" - This is a silly thing to say, because "harmful" has much more nuance than "naked skin in the pic or certain words in the text".
"British safety tech firm SafeToNet has shown this change is already achievable, with software that blocks nude content and prevents images being taken if the camera detects a child."
If the _camera_ detects a child, is it now! Even a human can't reliably tell the difference between someone a little bit "under age" and someone a little bit "over age".
I suppose they'll just err on the side of "if in doubt, assume everyone is a child", which is where it was headed anyway.
"We have proven that with HarmBlock, on-device, tamperproof, embedded safeguards can prevent children from seeing, filming and broadcasting explicit content. It works in real-time including livestream and crucially also protects the privacy rights of the child as no data enters or leaves the application."
Maybe. But it _will_ invade the privacy rights of _adults_.
Also, I wonder how this stuff deals with medical or educational reasons for looking at skin - like breast cancer info sites or safer sex info sites. Unconvinced it has the capacity to tell the difference.
-
CW: anti-nudity tech, pie in the sky
"Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data. The device should simply block harmful content across all apps and services. Over-18s will still be able to view adult content by providing proof of age."
"simply block harmful content" - This is a silly thing to say, because "harmful" has much more nuance than "naked skin in the pic or certain words in the text".
"British safety tech firm SafeToNet has shown this change is already achievable, with software that blocks nude content and prevents images being taken if the camera detects a child."
If the _camera_ detects a child, is it now! Even a human can't reliably tell the difference between someone a little bit "under age" and someone a little bit "over age".
I suppose they'll just err on the side of "if in doubt, assume everyone is a child", which is where it was headed anyway.
"We have proven that with HarmBlock, on-device, tamperproof, embedded safeguards can prevent children from seeing, filming and broadcasting explicit content. It works in real-time including livestream and crucially also protects the privacy rights of the child as no data enters or leaves the application."
Maybe. But it _will_ invade the privacy rights of _adults_.
Also, I wonder how this stuff deals with medical or educational reasons for looking at skin - like breast cancer info sites or safer sex info sites. Unconvinced it has the capacity to tell the difference.
-
CW: anti-nudity tech, pie in the sky
"Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data. The device should simply block harmful content across all apps and services. Over-18s will still be able to view adult content by providing proof of age."
"simply block harmful content" - This is a silly thing to say, because "harmful" has much more nuance than "naked skin in the pic or certain words in the text".
"British safety tech firm SafeToNet has shown this change is already achievable, with software that blocks nude content and prevents images being taken if the camera detects a child."
If the _camera_ detects a child, is it now! Even a human can't reliably tell the difference between someone a little bit "under age" and someone a little bit "over age".
I suppose they'll just err on the side of "if in doubt, assume everyone is a child", which is where it was headed anyway.
"We have proven that with HarmBlock, on-device, tamperproof, embedded safeguards can prevent children from seeing, filming and broadcasting explicit content. It works in real-time including livestream and crucially also protects the privacy rights of the child as no data enters or leaves the application."
Maybe. But it _will_ invade the privacy rights of _adults_.
Also, I wonder how this stuff deals with medical or educational reasons for looking at skin - like breast cancer info sites or safer sex info sites. Unconvinced it has the capacity to tell the difference.
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I wonder how the members of the Special Panel On Child Safety Online convened by @EUCommission President #VonDerLeyen think about the fact that the Commission has already made up its mind independent from the expert advice they have been requested to prepare. 🤔
#AgeVerification #AgeGating #MinorsProtection #ChildSafety #DSA
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I wonder how the members of the Special Panel On Child Safety Online convened by @EUCommission President #VonDerLeyen think about the fact that the Commission has already made up its mind independent from the expert advice they have been requested to prepare. 🤔
#AgeVerification #AgeGating #MinorsProtection #ChildSafety #DSA
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I wonder how the members of the Special Panel On Child Safety Online convened by @EUCommission President #VonDerLeyen think about the fact that the Commission has already made up its mind independent from the expert advice they have been requested to prepare. 🤔
#AgeVerification #AgeGating #MinorsProtection #ChildSafety #DSA
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I wonder how the members of the Special Panel On Child Safety Online convened by @EUCommission President #VonDerLeyen think about the fact that the Commission has already made up its mind independent from the expert advice they have been requested to prepare. 🤔
#AgeVerification #AgeGating #MinorsProtection #ChildSafety #DSA
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I wonder how the members of the Special Panel On Child Safety Online convened by @EUCommission President #VonDerLeyen think about the fact that the Commission has already made up its mind independent from the expert advice they have been requested to prepare. 🤔
#AgeVerification #AgeGating #MinorsProtection #ChildSafety #DSA
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Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile
LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.
4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future
A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.
4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag
I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.
4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag
I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.
4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag
I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.
4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena
My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.
4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi
Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.
4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag
I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.
#ageCheck #ageGating #ageVerification #ASTSpaceMobile #BlueOrigin #contentCreation #GoogleAIMode #InternetArchive #JeffersonGraham #JulianaBroste #las #LasVegas #lvcc #NABShow #NewGlenn #NTT #NTTUpgrade #NTTUpgrade2026 #Roblox #RobloxKids #SanJose #satelliteToPhone #SJC #swag #TMobile #TMobileInflightWiFi #travelTools #UA #UnitedAirlines #userGroups #Vegas #WaybackMachine -
Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile
LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.
4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future
A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.
4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag
I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.
4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag
I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.
4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag
I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.
4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena
My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.
4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi
Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.
4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag
I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.
#ageCheck #ageGating #ageVerification #ASTSpaceMobile #BlueOrigin #contentCreation #GoogleAIMode #InternetArchive #JeffersonGraham #JulianaBroste #las #LasVegas #lvcc #NABShow #NewGlenn #NTT #NTTUpgrade #NTTUpgrade2026 #Roblox #RobloxKids #SanJose #satelliteToPhone #SJC #swag #TMobile #TMobileInflightWiFi #travelTools #UA #UnitedAirlines #userGroups #Vegas #WaybackMachine -
Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile
LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.
4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future
A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.
4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag
I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.
4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag
I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.
4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag
I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.
4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena
My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.
4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi
Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.
4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag
I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.
#ageCheck #ageGating #ageVerification #ASTSpaceMobile #BlueOrigin #contentCreation #GoogleAIMode #InternetArchive #JeffersonGraham #JulianaBroste #las #LasVegas #lvcc #NABShow #NewGlenn #NTT #NTTUpgrade #NTTUpgrade2026 #Roblox #RobloxKids #SanJose #satelliteToPhone #SJC #swag #TMobile #TMobileInflightWiFi #travelTools #UA #UnitedAirlines #userGroups #Vegas #WaybackMachine -
Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile
LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.
4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future
A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.
4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag
I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.
4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag
I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.
4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag
I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.
4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena
My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.
4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi
Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.
4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag
I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.
#ageCheck #ageGating #ageVerification #ASTSpaceMobile #BlueOrigin #contentCreation #GoogleAIMode #InternetArchive #JeffersonGraham #JulianaBroste #las #LasVegas #lvcc #NABShow #NewGlenn #NTT #NTTUpgrade #NTTUpgrade2026 #Roblox #RobloxKids #SanJose #satelliteToPhone #SJC #swag #TMobile #TMobileInflightWiFi #travelTools #UA #UnitedAirlines #userGroups #Vegas #WaybackMachine -
Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile
LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.
4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future
A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.
4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag
I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.
4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag
I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.
4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag
I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.
4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena
My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.
4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi
Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.
4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag
I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.
#ageCheck #ageGating #ageVerification #ASTSpaceMobile #BlueOrigin #contentCreation #GoogleAIMode #InternetArchive #JeffersonGraham #JulianaBroste #las #LasVegas #lvcc #NABShow #NewGlenn #NTT #NTTUpgrade #NTTUpgrade2026 #Roblox #RobloxKids #SanJose #satelliteToPhone #SJC #swag #TMobile #TMobileInflightWiFi #travelTools #UA #UnitedAirlines #userGroups #Vegas #WaybackMachine -
Age gating isn't it.
1. it is a thinly-veiled surveillance information grab
2. it's a digital sovereignty issue
3. online communities can be Good, Actually
4. ... it's probably not going to work
5. age gating means dancing around the real issue of holding Big Tech accountable(also includes tips for how to get in touch with your representatives if you are Canadian and would like to voice your opposition. The time to do that is right now!)
https://technically-good.ca/blog/2026-04-age-gating-isnt-it/
#ageGating #ageVerification #surveillance #privacy #socialMedia
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Age gating isn't it.
1. it is a thinly-veiled surveillance information grab
2. it's a digital sovereignty issue
3. online communities can be Good, Actually
4. ... it's probably not going to work
5. age gating means dancing around the real issue of holding Big Tech accountable(also includes tips for how to get in touch with your representatives if you are Canadian and would like to voice your opposition. The time to do that is right now!)
https://technically-good.ca/blog/2026-04-age-gating-isnt-it/
#ageGating #ageVerification #surveillance #privacy #socialMedia
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Age gating isn't it.
1. it is a thinly-veiled surveillance information grab
2. it's a digital sovereignty issue
3. online communities can be Good, Actually
4. ... it's probably not going to work
5. age gating means dancing around the real issue of holding Big Tech accountable(also includes tips for how to get in touch with your representatives if you are Canadian and would like to voice your opposition. The time to do that is right now!)
https://technically-good.ca/blog/2026-04-age-gating-isnt-it/
#ageGating #ageVerification #surveillance #privacy #socialMedia
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Age gating isn't it.
1. it is a thinly-veiled surveillance information grab
2. it's a digital sovereignty issue
3. online communities can be Good, Actually
4. ... it's probably not going to work
5. age gating means dancing around the real issue of holding Big Tech accountable(also includes tips for how to get in touch with your representatives if you are Canadian and would like to voice your opposition. The time to do that is right now!)
https://technically-good.ca/blog/2026-04-age-gating-isnt-it/
#ageGating #ageVerification #surveillance #privacy #socialMedia
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Age gating isn't it.
1. it is a thinly-veiled surveillance information grab
2. it's a digital sovereignty issue
3. online communities can be Good, Actually
4. ... it's probably not going to work
5. age gating means dancing around the real issue of holding Big Tech accountable(also includes tips for how to get in touch with your representatives if you are Canadian and would like to voice your opposition. The time to do that is right now!)
https://technically-good.ca/blog/2026-04-age-gating-isnt-it/
#ageGating #ageVerification #surveillance #privacy #socialMedia
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438 Experts Said Age Verification Is Dangerous. Legislators Are Moving Forward With It Anyway.
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438 Experts Said Age Verification Is Dangerous. Legislators Are Moving Forward With It Anyway.
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438 Experts Said Age Verification Is Dangerous. Legislators Are Moving Forward With It Anyway.
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438 Experts Said Age Verification Is Dangerous. Legislators Are Moving Forward With It Anyway.
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438 Experts Said Age Verification Is Dangerous. Legislators Are Moving Forward With It Anyway.
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Well, we don't decide what the customers decide to ship, or where it goes. We don't enforce policy like that; our job is just to provide a neutral platform for others to use to accomplish their goals. We don't even know what they ship - we just build the train cars. We don't even know where Bergen-Belsen is.
This is a post about #systemd.
#AgeVerification #AgeGate #AgeGating #identification #deanonymization #anonymous #fascism #fascist #compliance #ComplyInAdvance #DoNotComply #DoNotComplyInAdvance #resistance #freedom #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #coconspirator #accomplice #DeathCamp #ConcentrationCamp
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Well, we don't decide what the customers decide to ship, or where it goes. We don't enforce policy like that; our job is just to provide a neutral platform for others to use to accomplish their goals. We don't even know what they ship - we just build the train cars. We don't even know where Bergen-Belsen is.
This is a post about #systemd.
#AgeVerification #AgeGate #AgeGating #identification #deanonymization #anonymous #fascism #fascist #compliance #ComplyInAdvance #DoNotComply #DoNotComplyInAdvance #resistance #freedom #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #coconspirator #accomplice #DeathCamp #ConcentrationCamp
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Well, we don't decide what the customers decide to ship, or where it goes. We don't enforce policy like that; our job is just to provide a neutral platform for others to use to accomplish their goals. We don't even know what they ship - we just build the train cars. We don't even know where Bergen-Belsen is.
This is a post about #systemd.
#AgeVerification #AgeGate #AgeGating #identification #deanonymization #anonymous #fascism #fascist #compliance #ComplyInAdvance #DoNotComply #DoNotComplyInAdvance #resistance #freedom #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #coconspirator #accomplice #DeathCamp #ConcentrationCamp
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Well, we don't decide what the customers decide to ship, or where it goes. We don't enforce policy like that; our job is just to provide a neutral platform for others to use to accomplish their goals. We don't even know what they ship - we just build the train cars. We don't even know where Bergen-Belsen is.
This is a post about #systemd.
#AgeVerification #AgeGate #AgeGating #identification #deanonymization #anonymous #fascism #fascist #compliance #ComplyInAdvance #DoNotComply #DoNotComplyInAdvance #resistance #freedom #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #coconspirator #accomplice #DeathCamp #ConcentrationCamp
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Well, we don't decide what the customers decide to ship, or where it goes. We don't enforce policy like that; our job is just to provide a neutral platform for others to use to accomplish their goals. We don't even know what they ship - we just build the train cars. We don't even know where Bergen-Belsen is.
This is a post about #systemd.
#AgeVerification #AgeGate #AgeGating #identification #deanonymization #anonymous #fascism #fascist #compliance #ComplyInAdvance #DoNotComply #DoNotComplyInAdvance #resistance #freedom #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #coconspirator #accomplice #DeathCamp #ConcentrationCamp
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Ageless Linux
An interesting response to unworkable, ill-advised and ultimately pointless age gating for OS providers.
Everyone will eventually be taught to lie about their age. Everyone will have a birthday on the 1st January 1970.
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Ageless Linux
An interesting response to unworkable, ill-advised and ultimately pointless age gating for OS providers.
Everyone will eventually be taught to lie about their age. Everyone will have a birthday on the 1st January 1970.
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Ageless Linux
An interesting response to unworkable, ill-advised and ultimately pointless age gating for OS providers.
Everyone will eventually be taught to lie about their age. Everyone will have a birthday on the 1st January 1970.
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Ageless Linux
An interesting response to unworkable, ill-advised and ultimately pointless age gating for OS providers.
Everyone will eventually be taught to lie about their age. Everyone will have a birthday on the 1st January 1970.
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Ageless Linux
An interesting response to unworkable, ill-advised and ultimately pointless age gating for OS providers.
Everyone will eventually be taught to lie about their age. Everyone will have a birthday on the 1st January 1970.
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14 year old Max has the right diagnosis (designed to maximise engagement), politicians have wrong solution (bans which require everyone to be policed on the internet). The problem is the business model so politicians need to regulate *that*.
#SocialMedia #AgeGating #OverPolicing #AttentionEconomy -
14 year old Max has the right diagnosis (designed to maximise engagement), politicians have wrong solution (bans which require everyone to be policed on the internet). The problem is the business model so politicians need to regulate *that*.
#SocialMedia #AgeGating #OverPolicing #AttentionEconomy -
14 year old Max has the right diagnosis (designed to maximise engagement), politicians have wrong solution (bans which require everyone to be policed on the internet). The problem is the business model so politicians need to regulate *that*.
#SocialMedia #AgeGating #OverPolicing #AttentionEconomy
